May the Stars Protect You!
by Lady Chekov
Summary: This is my second attempt....The tribe decides that a teenage Skywise is old enough to handle the knowledge of what happened to his parents....this is a little sad. Pleas reveiw me!!!!


Disclaimer: I don't own these characters...Wendy and Richard Pini do, so there!  
  
(This fiction takes place in the holt, way way back when Skywise is a teenager, Cutter is a child and Bearclaw is still alive)  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!"  
The howl tore loose from Skywise's throat as he ran through the underbrush. Branches lanced his skin, leaves snagged in his unruly white hair. It didn't matter, not now, he had to run.........to run.....  
"AAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"  
This time the angry scream cracked as broken sobs took its place. Broken sobs like broken bones......Shale's broken bones......."NO!NOOOO!" Skyise clamped his hands to his temples, never breaking stride. He had grown to an age......an age when the tribe thought it proper to reveal to him what had become of his parents. They'd circled him, starting off with sweet memories. They sent him fragments of his beautiful mother, clutching her swollen stomach with tenderness in her smiles. His mother, EyesHigh, with her glorious eyes peering high, whispering secrets to her unborn baby.  
Shale on the hunt, bellowing a howl, tagging beasts with his spear. Then, gradually, came the images that had tortured Skywise's dreams since infancy. He saw, through the others, Shale's body at an odd angle on the ground, his gray eyes open.....yet his life closed. And Bearclaw, who'd expierienced the last of EyesHigh's weak sends, shared him the final moment. A mother's tears and gentle message,  
~**Look to the stars, Skywise**~  
"NOOOOO!" Tears streamed from his pale gray eyes, sparkling like comet's tails in the double moon light. He emerged from the woods a dissheveiled mess, traces of blood clawing his arms and face, his gray bandanna gone, twigs tangled into impossible knots in his silver hair. A gaping hole revealed his swollen left knee where he'd tripped in his frantic dash from the holt, wanting only to leave those horrid sendings behind. Agility had been abandoned. A cliff edge now loomed before him, a great maw in the ground. Below, far far below, were jagged rocks and high pines. Above, high high above, an army of stars shined down.  
~**....stars will protect you....**~  
"AAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"  
Some guardians they were! They did little to erase the bitter memories of Shale's broken corpse or his mother's mournful face. The stars enhanced them rather, forming their figures within their shimmering clusters. For a moment, he was transfixed by those haloed images. ".....mother," he breathed,"father...." He stood frozen on the cliff's lip, large eyes full and breath snatched. One step and he could join them. His family. In the stars. One step......  
One small, single ste.....  
"SSSSKKKYYYWISE!!!!!" A young voice wailed his name and a bundle of blonde ripped out of the trees to wrap itself around his legs. Youthful sobs erupted into his blue leather vest. "Sky wise...." Cutter hipcuped, "I.....i had a b-bad dream.." Skywise was stunned by the interuption and looked down at Cutter with speechless shock. One second more and he would of.......He touched the child's head absently. Cutter raised his rain-filled eyes to Skywise, "I couldn't find mother..or...father...b-but I heard...your howls....so I looked...for you..." Skywise's lips turned into a small ghost of his familar smile, "Dreams can't hurt you, little brother, as long as they stay in your head.."  
"Skywise? You'll always be my big brother, right?? Forever???" Skywise's gaze turned heavenward, the stars glistening as if to say their goodbyes for now, whispering a soft, mournful.."someday"  
"As long as there are stars in the sky, little cheif-to-be." Skywise turned away from the cliff's lip, his arm around the smaller elf's shoulders.  
"If you ever wake with fear again in the night, Cutter.." Skywise continued. His eyes misted with tears like clouds over the two moons. "Just remember that the stars will protect you.........."  
  
~**the end**~  
  
  
(Don't hesistate to review this, I'd like to know if I should continue writing in this particular one or leave just the way it is......) 


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